Cycle on hire

I was taught cycling by my friend Padassery Raghu during summer vacation in 1971 at Venkitangu. We hired a cycle regularly from the village market.

I mastered couple of technical "cycle" skills before I mastered pedaling steadily. The first skill was cajoling the chain back into the sockets and the second one was "aligning" the handle bar for riding on a straight line. I learnt cycling on kucha paths. I fought with sand mounds and trees by banging the cycle against them. By the time my sister and her friends learnt cycling a couple of years later, the venue shifted to the precint of village temple.

On return to Madras, I taught couple of friends cycling in the vast compound of Fatima Mata Church next to Corley School. We hired cycles from shops on Velachery Road, East Tambaram opposite Madras Christian College main gate. As years progressed, we used pedal to Camp Road, Chitlappakkam, Gowrivakkam and Irumbaliyur.

Tambaram was the terminus of suburban trains - the only metre gauge suburban train system in the country. There were large paid cycle parking sheds on either side the railway station within railway premises.

There were large cycle parking lots operated by cycle shops from whom we hired cycles. People used to come cycling from Selayur, Camp Road, Perungalathur, Ganapathipuram, Poondy Basza, Rajakizhpakkam and beyond and traveled by train from Tambaram station to city to attend offices.

The cycle hire shop guys knew us well. On occasions when they did not have cycles to hire, they used to lend us cycles from parking lot after making sure we would be back by late afternoon before the cycle owners return.

On several occasions, We were waved down "desperately" by mechanics of these shops much ahead on our way back.

Reason ?

The cycle owner had returned early suddenly on some urgent errand after taking permission from office. The parking lot guy cajoled the owner by that his cycle had some problem and had been serviced free of cost - and the mechanic had taken it on a test ride ! on such occasions, the hire charges were collected on our next visit. We also learnt to slow down and look out for mechanics if we were on "parked" cycles !

In the last couple decades, these shops have vanished. The road has been broadened and the entire stretch of road has become a long bus terminal.

The Central Government has suddenly embarked on bicycle riding and cycling lanes as a priority component of Smart City initiative.

Hope this initiative works out well